180 THROUGH THE BRAZILIAN WILDERNESS 



of his own feelings when charged by lancers. It was while 

 he was fighting with the Venezuelan insurgents in an un- 

 successful uprising against the tyranny of Castro. He was 

 on foot, with five Venezuelans, all cool men and good shots. 

 In an open plain they were charged by twenty of Castro's 

 lancers, who galloped out from behind cover two or three 

 hundred yards off. It was a war in which neither side 

 gave quarter and in which the wounded and the prisoners 

 were butchered — ^just as President Madero was butchered 

 in Mexico. Cherrie knew that it meant death for him and 

 his companions if the charge came home; and the sight of 

 the horsemen running in at full speed, with their long lances 

 in rest and the blades glittering, left an indelible impres- 

 sion on his mind. But he and his companions shot delib- 

 erately and accurately; ten of the lancers were killed, the 

 nearest falling within fifty yards; and the others rode off 

 in headlong haste. A cool man with a rifle, if he has mas- 

 tered his weapon, need fear no foe. 



At this camp the auto-vans again joined us. They 

 were to go direct to the first telegraph station, at the great 

 falls of the Utiarity, on the Rio Papagaio. Of course they 

 travelled faster than the mule-train. Father Zahm, at- 

 tended by Sigg, started for the falls in them. Cherrie and 

 Miller also went in them, because they had found that it 

 was very difficult to collect birds, and especially mammals, 

 when we were moving every day, packing up early each 

 morning and the mule-train arriving late in the afternoon 

 or not until nightfall. Moreover, there was much rain, 

 which made it difficult to work except under the tents. 

 Accordingly, the two naturalists desired to get to a place 

 where they could spend several days and collect steadily. 



